Chimera Ants (Yahoo)
Chimera Ants (キメラアント, Kimera Anto) are a species of insects the live all around the world, and are one of the most powerful forms of life living on Earth. They are best known for causing an incident three years ago that resulted in the death of 12th Hunter Association Chairman Isaac Netero and the complete reformation of the Hunter Association. The nest responsible for this incident is known as the NGL Nest, named for their place of origin, and all remaining members of this nest have been classified as Magical Beasts. Three years after the events of the NGL Nest's attempted extermination at the hands of Netero and his team, a second nest of sentient ants was discovered on the Strali Continent. This group of ants has been named the Rogue Nest because once the King of the nest was born, he ordered his Royal Guard to weed out any week-willed soldiers, declaring it his own form of The Selection. Background Chimera Ants are extremely dangerous animals that come from the "outside" world and are ranked first among insects that should be quarantined. Also known as the "Gourmet Ant," they have voracious appetites and can consume several times their own weight within a single day. In every nest, one Queen Chimera Ant exists to produce more Ants in order to ensure the success of the species. Chimera Ant Queens possess an entirely unique method of reproduction known as Phagogenesis (摂食交配, Sesshoku Kōhai), a fictional term meaning reproduction through devouring. By eating other creatures, a Chimera Ant queen can impart the characteristics of ingested creatures onto the next generation of Chimera Ants it gives birth to. To take advantage of the genes of a particular species, Chimera Ants have been known to feed until the fodder species is driven to extinction in its ecosystem. A Chimera Ant colony is organized into a military-like chain of command. At the top of the hierarchy is the Queen Ant, initially protected by the three Royal Guards. Under them are thirty-six Squadron Leaders, who each command four or five Officers, each of whom in turn are in charge of ten to fifteen Drudges. The later a Chimera Ant is born by the queen, the stronger and higher ranking it is in their hive. After enough Ants have been produced to form a colony, the Queen Ant focuses all her efforts on giving birth to a King Ant. Upon his birth, the Royal Guards solely follow the commands of the King. Although normal Chimera Ants are the size of large insects (with a Queen capable of growing to a maximum length of 10 centimeters), the NGL Nest's Queen mutated and stood over two meters tall. When the Queen began to feed on humans, her offspring gained human-like qualities and became powerful creatures that posed a great threat to the human race. As a secondary effect, the Ants born by the Queen also become more intelligent and humanoid shaped while retaining traits of various animals consumed by the Queen. Newer generations of Chimera Ants are capable of using both human speech and a form of telepathy to communicate. In contrast, the earliest generation ants and the Queen may only use telepathy while the Royal Guards are wholly incapable of it. Chimera Ants are also capable of surviving wounds that would be fatal to a human and can regenerate damage to their body within a day if their heads are not destroyed. The later generation of Ants produced possess a great degree of individuality, as a result of the Queen's mostly human diet. Several of these Ants also possess memories from the lives of the humans eaten by the Queen, in the form of personality or knowledge of language and other subjects. Having a strong will as a human being makes it more likely for one to be reborn as an ant. Development and Reproduction A Chimera Ant life starts from an egg. When it hatches a Chimera Ant will emerge in full adult form ready to work for the Queen. The Queen is the center of reproducing. However, in an unexpected event that the Queen dies or loses its ability to reproduce, known reports states that male soldier ants will break from the colony and will try assume the role as a King Ant. Then they will try to forcibly mate with the females of other species to give birth to a new generation of ants. It is not known if female soldier ants can do the same and breed with males of other species. The Selection is another unique phenomenon for reproducing soldiers that the Chimera ants gained after getting human intelligence and the knowledge of Nen, however, not all Nests are capable of using the Selection method. It all depends on the Nen abilities of the Royal Guard of the Nest. Biology A Chimera Ant is an insect but with human/animal features. Their appearance is something of a human-animal hybrid depending on the Queen's diet. Aside from their unique appearance, there are also a few things that make Chimera Ants easily identifiable: the inability of some of the Chimera Ants to completely lose their insectoid joints and their one track mind of acquiring prey to slate their hunger. Types of Chimera Ants The Rogue Nest *Sphynx Cat: Mūdosta *Various: Lenmek *Beetle: Delliono *Tiger Shark: Ranteru *Raven: Zihfelm *Snapping Turtle: Biyo *Cobra: Elayrue *Cookie-cutter Shark: Chofa Trivia *Much of this article was adapted from the Hunterpedia's Chimera Ant page to suit the author's storyline. Credit goes to the original authors. Category:Chimera Ants Category:Canon to Fanon Category:Magical Beasts Category:Nen users